R.I.P J.D. Salinger

Discussion in 'Books' started by NORML, Jan 28, 2010.

  1. NORML

    NORML Member+

    Aug 9, 2002
    Lake Wobegon, MN
    Club:
    NSC Minnesota Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    link to NY Times

    I liked Catcher loved Raise the Roof Beam
     
  2. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    Maybe now, anything he's written since he went into seclusion will be made available.

    (And opening posts to threads like this should really be better produced.)
     
  3. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Wow. This is huge. I wonder, though, if he asked not to have things released, whether his family will go against his wishes.
     
  4. G-boot

    G-boot Member

    Manchester United
    Nov 6, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    I read in his daughter's account that he color-coded those manuscripts in order for editors to know what to fix and what to leave no matter what. We may see what he produced "without the pressure or the need to publish." {his words}

    I thought he was a brilliant man with the freakish ability of greatness.
     
  5. mattteo

    mattteo Member

    Jul 19, 2006
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Salinger, Howard Zinn...what a shit day.
     
  6. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    They should disregard any such request, and Salinger himself would have known better than expect his further writings to be kept under lock and key for eternity. If he hadn't wanted anything published, he could have destroyed the manuscripts.

    Before Eugene O'Neill died in 1953, he told his wife (and Bennett Cerf of Random House) not to publish the play Long Day's Journey Into Night until 25 years after his death! And then wanted it to never be performed -- ever!!

    Well, that nonsensical request went out the window a couple of years after he was dead. His widow allowed O'Neill's greatest play to be published (against Cerf's wishes) and permitted its staging. The play rocked Broadway in Jose Quintero's 1956 production with Jason Robards and it rehabilitated O'Neill's battered reputation. He went from 'has-been' to Giant -- a position he maintains to this day.

    Publish away! -- no matter what the great man J.D. may have asked. Let's see if Salinger's rep soars to new heights.
     
  7. Rafael Hernandez

    Rafael Hernandez Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 6, 2002
    Anyway, I keep picturing these little kids playing some game in this big field or rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean, except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.

    No book impacted me like Catcher in the Rye did when I read it in High School and I doubt that wil change. People may not like it much but I still do. Maybe it's nostalgia or whatever but that how I am. This is so sad. RIP Salinger.
     
  8. YankBastard

    YankBastard Na Na Na Na NANANANAAA!

    Jun 18, 2005
    Estados Unidos
    Club:
    AS Roma
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    With his death Hollywood is now poised to ruin Catcher in the Rye by making a movie of it.

     
  9. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
  10. Ian Lozada

    Ian Lozada Member

    May 29, 2001
    The Pick Four Pool
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Having never read Catcher In The Rye before, I tried to give it a whack last night.

    It must clearly lose something if you're reading it at 37 instead of 15, because I abandoned it after 8 chapters or so. I just couldn't take anymore of his whining and was at least happy to see someone beat the crap out of him before I left. I could see right through him-- just another snot nosed punk who rails against "phonies", not realizing that not having an act was his act.
     
  11. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I reread Catcher in a class I was teaching a couple years ago on American literature in the 1950s. I was dreading it, but for me, it held up pretty well. Most of the students liked it, too, even those who read it in high school a couple years previously and didn't dig it. In the context of America in the 1950s, it does some interesting things, and most students especially liked how upon rereading (for them) Holden's whiny-ass prickdom comes across a lot more blatantly, and it related to a lot of other things we read like The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, On The Road, and Wise Blood, all of which represent characters trying to find "authentic" ways of living in a world that strikes them as "phony."

    Of course, if as in Ian's case, if you're not reading the book as a historical document but just as a book, I can see where he's coming from.

    I was going to try to read some of JDS's short stories over the weekend, but some goddam phonies got to the library before me. I've only read a couple of those, and I'm curious to see how they would work for me now.
     
  12. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
    I first read it in my early 20s, last year of undergrad, and kind of felt the same way. But now I give it a little more slack for its context.

     
  13. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I forgot to point out that in the context of the class in which I taught it, Catcher also worked really well in relation to other books that had unlikeable or otherwise problematic first person narrators. I'm looking especially at you, Humbert Humbert, but also you, Lou Ford.
     
  14. bojendyk

    bojendyk New Member

    Jan 4, 2002
    South Loop, Chicago
    Did you see that The New Yorker posted pdfs of all of the stories Salinger published in that magazine on their website?
     
  15. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I did not know that. If the stories are still up tomorrow, and if the printer at work is not being too heavily guarded, I might print up a few of those. Thanks.
     
  16. Ian Lozada

    Ian Lozada Member

    May 29, 2001
    The Pick Four Pool
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'd be interested to find out if I like any of his other stuff better. Any recommendations?
     
  17. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Tough call. It's been a long long time since I read Franny and Zooey, but if I'm remembering it at all correctly, one or the other of them will get on your nerves as quickly as Holden did. And I have no memory of Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenter at all. But if they're in your local library, give them a shot.
     
  18. bojendyk

    bojendyk New Member

    Jan 4, 2002
    South Loop, Chicago
  19. Dante

    Dante Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Upstate NY
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was always a fan of Salinger's short stories, with A Perfect Day for Bananafish being my favorite. I remember back in high school, after we read Catcher in the Rye, our English teacher brought in a video where a couple people go on camera and tell of their search for Salinger. The whole thing added this air of mystery about the man that made him more endearing to me.
     
  20. riverplate

    riverplate Member+

    Jan 1, 2003
    Corona, Queens
    Club:
    CA River Plate
    Unsealed Letters Offer Glimpse of Salinger - N.Y. Times

     
  21. minorthreat

    minorthreat Member

    Jan 1, 2001
    NYC
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    As does his repressed homosexuality.
     
  22. Uppa 90

    Uppa 90 Member

    Jan 16, 2004
    K.C. MO
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I wonder how long it will be until his family starts publishing the stuff he has stacked around his place?

    me wonders when the damn shall break open and a new world of literature opened up like Emily Dickinson's family did a century ago...
     
  23. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

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